Stevie Wonder Pays for Funerals for Five Children Killed in Philadelphia Fire

June 17, 2005
Singer and musician Stevie Wonder has arranged to pay the funeral expenses for five children who were killed in a city row house fire, his publicist said.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Singer and musician Stevie Wonder has arranged to pay the funeral expenses for five children who were killed in a city row house fire, his publicist said.

Wonder was heartbroken after hearing about the blaze and wanted to do something to help the family, said his publicist, Ira Tucker.

''I don't think he's ever done anything like this before,'' Tucker said. ''It's just good that something can be lifted from them.''

Wonder, 55, also hopes to visit with the families while he is in Philadelphia for the Live 8 concert on July 2, Tucker was quoted Friday as saying.

''Stevie feels good about this,'' Tucker said. ''It's been just a heart-wrenching thing.''

The June 12 blaze in the city's Kensington neighborhood killed three sisters, Summer Cooke, 5; Samantha Bowers, 4; and Sabrina Dickson, 22 months; and two of their cousins who lived nearby, Amber Johnson, 3; and Reginald Ringgold, 1.

The three sisters' mother, Shannon Bowers, 21, and her boyfriend, Lester Cooke, 33, escaped by jumping from a second-floor window into a children's wading pool on the sidewalk.

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fire.

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